Sunday, November 22, 2009

Common Words Unearthed

All formal definitions from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary more or less

Responsibility: liability to be called on to answer
Unearthing: The act of doing a job in a timely manner makes one responsible. The preciseness of the completed job usually matters less than the time line under which the job is completed.

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it
Unearthing: Sympathetic consciousness of others as well as your own distress together with a desire to alleviate it, makes one truly compassionate. Distress itself is subjective on the other hand. So to be compassionate, one requires a certain level of discretion to differentiate between actual distress and perceived distress.

Conversation: oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas
Unearthing: Conversation classically is oral but with new technology (blogs, social networking sites, online newspapers, instant messaging), it can be written as well. The exchange has to be fruitful in some way otherwise it is simply an exchange rather than a conversation.